Metro Church of God declined to host The Basement again after Matt Pitt arrest

Matt Pitt, founder of The Basement youth service (Photo by Mark Almond/malmond@al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Metropolitan Church of God, which hosted a Tuesday night service of The Basement youth ministry on Aug. 13, turned the group down when it wanted to rent the gymnasium again after the Aug. 20 arrest of The Basement founder Matt Pitt.

Pitt is being held in the Shelby County Jail on a charge of impersonating an officer. Last September, Pitt had pleaded guilty to a separate charge of impersonating an officer and was given a suspended sentence. His probation has now been revoked.

Pitt founded The Basement in the basement of his family’s Roebuck home in 2004. Crowds of youth crammed in to hear his testimony of spiritual transformation. A year later he began moving it to a series of large churches, then to civic arenas as it became one of the largest youth worship services in the country.

Metropolitan Church of God, which hired new senior staff in January, agreed to rent the gym on Aug. 13, after receiving a call from The Basement staff on Aug. 12.

"They were in a bind and needed a place," said the Rev Kirk Walters, senior pastor of Metropolitan Church of God since January. "It was never going to be an ongoing thing."

Walters said the request was brought up in a staff meeting about facilities.

"I had never even heard of The Basement," Walters said. "I’d never heard of Matt Pitt. I've never met Matt Pitt."

Metropolitan Church of God Executive Pastor Michael Welborn said The Basement staff called last week wanting to rent the facility again, but this time the request was declined.

"With all the present things going on, we said no," Welborn said.

"We’re not saying the Basement doesn’t have a good ministry. We are kind of distancing ourselves from it. There’s no affiliation. They just called to rent our facility. There’s no association prior to that. Because of the controversy, we didn’t want to rent the facility to them again until everything was cleared up."

The Basement leaders who are likely to be the main speakers in Pitt's absence, including Casey "Bird" Holland and Ike Ubasineke, have been using social media to promote a meeting of The Basement tonight at 6:45 p.m. at The Basement's warehouse, known as the "B-Studio," behind Bryant Bank in Trussville. It would be the first worship service of The Basement since Pitt's latest arrest.

Walters said his main concern is that he hopes Pitt's legal troubles don't negatively affect Christian ministry in general.

"For me as a minister I hate it when I see that happen to anyone," Walters said. "I hope it doesn’t reflect badly on Jesus. I want people to view Jesus as he is."